Big bleep on the Reinstein Radar today: Danger Will Robinson! Danger!
Poindexter…Poindexter…I knew that name sounded familiar as I’ve been reading through this last week’s frightening headlines about the “Total Information Awareness” project and the guy spearheading the whole thing: John “Iran Contra” Poindexter — The token “bad guy” who took the fall in the Iran-Contra trial so everybody else involved in the scandal could get off (like President Reagan and Ollie North). I’d forgotten that an appeals court had overturned Poindexter’s conviction shortly afterward. (Meaning it was time to go back to working for the Bush’s apparently!)
These days, Poindexter is making a name for himself as the head of the DARPA’s “Information Awareness Office” — and if the Homeland Security Act passes through the Senate next week without any amendments, he will be the central point of control for all of your commercially-obtained once-considered private information. We’re talking government intrusion on your privacy in its purest Orwellian-style form. And what security will we get in return? They’re going to have to get back to us on that one…

You Are a Suspect
By William Safire for the NY Times.

Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend